Comments on: Everything is Crashing!

By: The Pope

The Pope — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:00:13 +0000

AAAAaaaaaarggggh! After being down all morning we're back up and the site seems zippy and responsive. Lets hope it stays that way.

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By: paul

paul — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:30:42 +0000

By one technical theory we may have seen a temporary bottom in the equity markets. In theory it is called a ‘sequential buy setup’; these occured around eight of the capitulation lows of recent market history. This is a cycle analysis tool which indicated that yesterday , Oct 27th was the cyclical climactic low. This may account for the buy party today. It is not my opinion that this is the end of the tunnel and is only a temporary reprieve, Wave theory (Kondratieff) has us visiting -700 (DJIA). This not investment advice.

http://www.kwaves.com/kond_overview.htm

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By: blueskies

blueskies — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:04:36 +0000

not everything is crashing TSX closed at +614 looks like 9000+/- is some sort of floor..... we'll see Wednesday or Thursday or Friday month end and quarter end.....

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By: dingus

dingus — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:35:04 +0000

Housing market ‘alarms’ Merrill

http://www.globeinvestor.com/s.....8/GIStory/

Merrill Lynch & Co. economists are becoming more “alarmed” about the Canadian housing market every day as their data suggest it is tracking the United States with a two-year lag.

Falling prices, overbuilding and too much unsold inventory in Canada are creating a trend similar to that in the United States a couple of years ago, Merrill economists David Wolf and Carolyn Kwan said in a research note Tuesday.

“Though the consensus does seem to be gravitating towards our view of a sustained downturn in the Canadian housing market, we still do not sense any particular alarm in either the policy-making or forecasting community. We ourselves are getting more alarmed by the day,” Mr. Wolf and Ms. Kwan said in their report.

…

The number of units under construction currently is just off the peak hit in May, which was the highest recorded in 36 years of available data and 97 per cent above the long-term average, the report said.

By contrast at its peak in 2006, U.S. housing construction was 54 per cent above the long-term average, it added.

As of August, there were more condos under construction in both Toronto and Vancouver separately than there were in all Canadian cities combined a decade ago, Mr. Wolf and Ms. Kwan said.

“And as in the U.S. two years ago, we are now seeing completed units pile up unsold in Canada, a clear sign of overbuilding and an ominous sign given the voluminous supply still in the pipeline,” they said.

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By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:09:49 +0000

Not everything has crashed, our government is still there to collect taxes!

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By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:09:32 +0000

Observer, I agree with you on the moral guidance issue. I would call a crisis of trust. I think people have become very distrustful of institutions, including corporate and government. In the US, people are even loosing trust in the process of democracy (e.g. Acorn, electronic voting). Greater accountability and transparency is required. Leaders who screw up should not get rewarded (e.g. bank CEOs, Henry Paulson). Rather, they should get shown the door.

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By: observer

observer — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:53:50 +0000

Repeating my previous post with some more detail as the server crashed during edits.

alexcanuk The bottom will be a p/e ratio just below 5 (using updated earnings) unless leaders provide some moral guidance on what is acceptable economic behavior. The economy only works because we have confidence that right work will be valued and rewarded and no one is making obscene amounts of money through “parasitic” activities like house flipping (to use a phrase coined by CDS).

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